• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Crushing Krisis

The Newest Oldest Blog In New Zealand

  • Archive
  • DC Guides
    • DC New 52
    • DC Events
    • DC Rebirth
    • Batman Guide
  • Marvel Guides
    • Omnibus & Oversize Hardcover DB
    • Marvel Events
  • Star Wars Guide
    • Expanded Universe Comics (2015 – present)
    • Legends Comics (1977 – 2014)
  • Valiant Guides
  • Contact!

Scott Clark

From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Warblade: Endangered Species #1-4, Grifter: One Shot (1995), and Maul in “Thinking Big”

November 24, 2016 by krisis

[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]Today I’ll tackle the three WildCAT spinoffs published to date – Warblade’s mini-series, a Grifter One-Shot, and a Maul solo story in Image Rarities.

warblade-endangered-species-0001While Grifter eventually getting his own title was fait accompli, at this point it feels like Warblade is the least deserving of all the WildCATs who merited their own sideline series. At least Maul has the dichotomy of being a modern art loving nerd by day and a massive purple hulk on the battlefield. Maybe that’s why Warblade needed his own series so badly – because his narrative arc had been treading water ever since Killer Instinct.

Hearing Warblade’s internal monologue across four issues helps to solidify his character. He isn’t ruled by rage at all times as we’ve seen in the heat of so many battles. He can be cool and analytical, but he’s also not the best tactician, which leads him into unfortunate situations when his rage takes over and he prepares to strike.

Steven Seagle delivers solid workmanship and well-structured issues, which is exactly what WildStorm needs in growing out its cast of characters. Scott Clark’s name is welcome sight on pencils, having disappeared for several months after his stellar work launching Stormwatch. His output isn’t quite up to that par, with his figures getting increasingly gawky starting in issue #3.

By contrast, Grifter has been the breakout star of WildCATs from their first issue, which makes his flaccid one-shot a puzzler. Steven Seagle spends as much time having Grifter think about women as objects as he does having him show any kind of charm or expertise. The story adds a useless layer of backstory in addition to Zealot’s training and Team 7. It feels like the worst sort of Marvel book, that adds in layers of complicated history just because it can and then is quickly ignored (usually because, like this one, it kills all of its interesting new characters).

Finally, we come to Maul, the art-loving romantic who is also the WildCATs’ biggest bruiser. He was highlighted in an original story by Mark Waid called “Thinking Big” in Wildstorm Rarities. It’s a quick tossaway tale about Maul catching a runaway jet in his hands, but it makes clear that even in his smaller iterations as Maul the intelligence he has as Jeremy is inaccessible. It’s these little human moments that WildCATs had been missing – but, it also didn’t have a master like Mark Waid writing it.

Want the full details? Keep reading for a deeper breakdown of the plot. Here’s the schedule for the rest of this month’s WildStorm re-read. Tomorrow, finally, it’s back to Stormwatch with#17-21 & Special 02! Plus, while I’ve got a copy of WildStorm Rarities handy, I’ll cover the other stories from that issue – which occurred quite some time ago in continuity.

Need the issues? None of these issues have been collected, so you’ll need to hunt them down as singles (though Grifter and Rarities are actually both perfect-bound books): Warblade: Endangered Species (Amazon / eBay), Grifter: One Shot (Amazon / eBay), and WildStorm Rarities (Amazon / eBay), which is a perfect-bound book with a spine.

[Read more…] about From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Warblade: Endangered Species #1-4, Grifter: One Shot (1995), and Maul in “Thinking Big”

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Dan Norton, From The Beginning, From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe, Grifter, Image Comics, Mark Waid, Maul, Ripclaw, Scott Clark, Steven Seagle, Warblade, WildCATs, Wildstorm

From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Stormwatch #9, 25, & 10

November 12, 2016 by krisis

[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]We’re finally here! It’s the issue of Stormwatch that inspired this month of blogging even though I had never read it before.

With “Images of Tomorrow,” Stormwatch #25 leapt one year into the future to show the dark timeline that awaited the team …but I’m already getting ahead of myself. First, we have to read issue #9, with H. K. Proger on script and Ryan Benjamin penciling.

The issue makes the unusual move of giving us a second story in a row with a point-of-view character outside of our main cast. This time it is Sunburst, one of the members of Stormwatch Prime rescued from Gamorra in #6-7.

stormwatch_v1_025_coverThe story is a “race to defuse the bomb” tale that gives us some backstory on Sunburst as well as context for his relationships with his teammates Nautika and Flashpoint. However, that was just a red herring (both for Sunburst and for us as readers), as at the end we learn the point of the story was for Defile to finally crack Sunburst’s psyche after he proved unbreakable during his captivity.

This would seem like a minor fill-in issue on its own, but paired with the portents of #25 it takes on considerably more foreboding.

Steven T. Seagle randomly steps in on scripting duties on #25, but he’s abetted by Scott Clark on his Stormwatch swan song after penciling six of the first eight issues. Between Seagle’s script, Clark’s slightly perverted character designs, and the darkness of the tale, the book is fantastic.

Every page carries a chilling new reveal that you’d typically expect from a “What If?” tale, except this one professes that it’s really going to happen! If I had sat down to read it at the time I would have never dropped this book.

Silver Surfer scripter Ron Marz takes the title over with #10 for a run through #24. While I was a little peeved to lose Brandon Choi on his best title, Marz quickly made me forget my annoyance. You can feel his expertise lock in immediately with the dreadful pall that hangs over Battalion’s narration, and the nuanced descriptions of his teammates doubling as introductions we’re getting for the first time.

Marz is re-teamed with his Stormwatch Special collaborator Dwayne Turner, who does a much better job drawing a solid, dour version team of the team this time around. Maybe that’s because Marz gives him so much more room to breath than in the rushed pace of the Special. Each member gets their own spread to show off their abilities as he explains their histories.

It was a brilliant move to turn this Avengers-style procedural drama about policing the globe into a towering tragedy via glimpsing the horror of a future that cannot be prevented it. It elevates Battalion – already a great character – to the position of being WildStorm’s own tragic Hamlet. And, we the reader are left dreading every page turn for what it might reveal about Battalion and Diva’s fate.

Want the play-by-play? Keep reading for a summary of these two teams going head to head. Here’s the schedule for the rest of this month’s WildStorm re-read. Tomorrow we get to one of my favorite runs of this entire era – Gen 13’s original mini-series! Will it hold up to re-read 20 years after my last time paging through? I can’t wait to find out.

Need the issues? You’ll need to purchase single issues – try eBay (#9-10 & 25) or Amazon (#9, 25, 10). Since further Stormwatch series hit these same issue numbers, be sure to match your purchase to the images in this post. [Read more…] about From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Stormwatch #9, 25, & 10

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: From The Beginning, From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe, Image Comics, Ron Marz, Scott Clark, Steven Seagle, Stormwatch, Wildstorm

From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Stormwatch #1-3 & 0

November 2, 2016 by krisis

[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]WildC.A.T.s and Stormwatch were the two halves of the WildStorm whole that Jim lee and childhood friend Brandon Choi had dreamed up over several years leading up to the formation of Image comics.

stormwatch-001WildC.A.T.s played with the familiar “gifted one” trope of X-Men plus the alien conflict borne out in present day of Inhumans. From the start, Stormwatch was something much more nuanced even if it featured its fair share of X-TREME characters and powers and shoulder pads.

Stormwatch is ostensibly the Avengers or Justice League International of WildStorm. It wasn’t just one team, but a global, UN-sanctioned network of powered individuals governed by a central eye in the sky in the form of the all-seeing Weatherman One. Instead of focusing on a the customary holy trilogy of super-powers as both Marvel and DC’s analogues always had, Stormwatch starts as a personal story of the captain of the most-elite team – Jackson King, AKA Battalion.

The first three issues of Stormwatch are a satisfying blockbuster that compares favorably to the Claremont/Lee opening salvo on X-Men, Volume 2 in 1991. Even if it lacks the deep history of that arc, it has the same sense of scope and constant, kinetic action. The same can’t be said for #0, which is mostly filler wrapped around two or three intriguing pieces of information.

The book looked damned great under the pen of artist Scott Clark, who got plucked from the relative obscurity of producing art for the superhero RPG Champions to anchor this WildStorm co-flagship. His figures have all of the heft of Rob Liefeld’s biggest bruisers with the coherence of overblown anatomy of Jim Lee, plus detailed backgrounds. Brett Booth isn’t quite as good on the #0 issue, but he’s suffering from a too-dark set of inks and colors muddying his line work.

Battalion isn’t the only memorable character here. Headstrong Diva is striking with her chalk-white skin, pink one-piece swimsuit costume, and long blonde hair. She quickly emerges as Stormwatch One’s second-in-command. Fuji is more than a generic bruiser – he’s a mirthful being of pure energy contained in a bulky gray suit that gives the impression of an two-legged elephant. The pair gets only limited panel time, but they connect more meaningfully than the snoozy WildC.A.T.s team before Zealot and Grifter arrived.

In a line of unsteady books from artists turned auteurs and publishers, Stormwatch quickly distinguished itself as a title to watch.

Want the play-by-play? Keep reading for a summary of the team’s debut. Here’s the schedule for the rest of this month’s WildStorm re-read – tomorrow we’ll go solo with Deathblow #0-4!

Need the issues? Stormwatch #1-3 & 0 have never been included in a collected edition! If you see a “Vol. 1” from this run, it’s actually the first volume of Warren Ellis’s later run on the title. You’ll need to purchase single issues – try eBay (#1 & 0, 2, 3) or Amazon (#0, 1, 2, 3)
[Read more…] about From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Stormwatch #1-3 & 0

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Brandon Choi, From The Beginning, From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe, Scott Clark, Stormwatch, Wildstorm

Primary Sidebar


Support Crushing Krisis on Patreon
Support CK
on Patreon


Follow me on Twitter Like me on Facebook Contact me
Follow me on Instagram Watch me on Youtube Subscribe to the CK RSS Feed

About CK

About Crushing Krisis
About My Music
About Your Author
Blog Archive
Comics Blogs Only
Contact Krisis
Terms & Conditions

Crushing Comics

Marvel Comics
Marvel Events Guide
Marvel Omnibus Guide
Spider-Man Guide

DC Comics
DC New 52
DC Rebirth

Valiant Comics

Copyright © 2017 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

Crushing Krisis is supported by SuperHeroic Sponsor Omnibuds' Café


Links from Crushing Krisis to retailer websites may be in the form of affiliate links. If you purchase through an affiliate link I will receive a minor credit as your referrer. My credit does not affect your purchase price. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to: Amazon Services LLC Associates Program (in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), eBay Partner Network, and iTunes Affiliate Program. Note that URLs including the "geni.us" domain name are affiliate short-links.